Around Ireland — Nine Nights from Dublin to the Giant’s Causeway

You are met at the airport by a representative and driven to your hotel in a private vehicle. Dublin's centre is small and split by the Liffey, and the first evening is best spent on foot near your hotel. The rest of the day is free.

A hop-on hop-off day in Dublin. The Georgian squares, the cathedrals, the university and the brewery district sit across a compact but walkable-to-a-point centre, and the route saves the legs for the evening.

You make your own way to the station for the train south-west to Killarney, and your own way from Killarney station to your hotel. The country opens out and greens noticeably as you go. The rest of the day is free.

A city tour of Killarney followed by the Ring of Kerry — the coastal circuit around the Iveragh peninsula, running past mountains, lakes and a long stretch of Atlantic coastline. It is a full day and it is the reason Killarney is on the itinerary.

You travel on to Galway by coach and check in on arrival. Galway sits where the Corrib meets the Atlantic and is the smallest and most compact of the bases on this trip, which makes the evening easy. The rest of the day is free.

A full day out from Galway to the Cliffs of Moher, which run for miles along the Atlantic edge and drop more than two hundred metres straight into the sea, and then across the Burren — a bare limestone plateau with its own flora and a landscape unlike anywhere else in Ireland.

You make your own way to the station for the train back east to Dublin, approximately two hours thirty minutes, and your own way from Dublin station to your hotel. The evening is free in a city you already know your way around.

You make your own way to the station for the train north to Belfast, approximately two hours ten minutes, crossing the border into Northern Ireland, and make your own way to your hotel. The rest of the day is free.

A Belfast tour and then a full day along the Antrim coast. The Giant's Causeway is forty thousand interlocking basalt columns left by a volcanic flow; the Glens of Antrim run inland behind the coast road; and the Dark Hedges is an avenue of beech trees planted in the eighteenth century.

Breakfast at the hotel, then check out and a private transfer from your hotel to the airport. The source advises reaching the airport three to four hours before your departure flight.